Uncanny X-Men #350

Uncanny X-Men #350

Writing: Steve Seagle

Art: Joe Madureira and Andy Smith

What Went Down:  On his way to his trial, Gambit reminisces about meeting Sinister prior to his final job for the villain.  Gambit tells Sinister he’s done working for him, after assembling a group of villains.  Sinister insists he needs one last job and throws Gambit a tiny vial for his payment.  In present day Antarctica, Spat and Grovel are piloting a snowmobile to an unknown location.  The snowmobile is taken over by an unknown source and disappears.

Elsewhere, Beast is cobbling together a transport for the group to go after Gambit with.  Joseph explains that he has used his powers to reconfigure some of the robots’ clothes from the last story, but this might just be an excuse to cover up for the artist drawing the wrong costumes.

In Manhattan, Psylocke has knocked Maggott out and is examining him while Angel fights his two slugs.  Betsy begins to do her shadow teleport because part of Maggott is “missing” and something in him “attracts” her.  Warren and the slugs hurry into the portal to follow her.

In his cell, a mysterious voice chastises Gambit for his crimes.  Gambit assumes it is Sinister.  Meanwhile, the X-Men have pieced together a working transport.  The team pulls over when Joseph starts to feel ill.  Outside, Rogue finds one of Gambit’s playing cards, and Joseph raises a giant citadel from the snow. 

After a one page interlude where Xavier has a nightmare about different teams of X-Men asking where he is, the X-Men journey into the castle.  They split up to look for Gambit, even though Joseph is about to fall over from illness.

Coincidentally, Psylocke has also managed to teleport to the very same citadel; for some reason Angel and Maggott appear in different parts of the building.  Warren discovers a noose, and Maggott runs into Joseph.  Joseph recognizes Maggott, although he doesn’t know from where.  Then Joseph is knocked out by a mystery person, whom Maggott recognizes.  Beast, Trish, Psylocke, and Angel are all captured by the mystery person as well. 

Rogue finds Gambit in a cell.  She tries to convince him to leave, but he refuses.  A person dressed like Erik the Red appears with Spat and Grovel, and they take down Rogue. 

On a plane over Pennsylvania, the other team of X-Men is returning home from New Mexico after surviving Operation Zero Tolerance.  Jean is trying to help Cyclops, who has a bomb in his stomach.  Cannonball contemplates how out of place he feels among such close friends, and Jubilee warns him about thinking too hard.

Erik the Red and his robot assistant Ferris stand before the captured X-Men.  Angel is announced to be Gambit’s defender while the rest of the X-Men make up the jury.  Warren notes that Erik the Red isn’t a person, but a disguise that different characters have used over the years, like Cyclops and a Shi’ar agent.  Some the other X-Men wonder if it might be Joseph, but Erik drags the badly beaten Joseph out for them all to see. 

Gambit tells the first part of his story; he admits to working for Sinister and not telling the team.  Naturally the team is less than thrilled by this.  All of a sudden Psylocke recalls some memories of Gambit’s that she had gleamed from his mind waaaayy back in Uncanny X-Men #324, but conveniently forgotten about until this very moment.  She tells the X-Men that Gambit assembled Mr. Sinister’s Marauders right before the Morlock Massacre.  Archangel is angered by this because he lost his wings during that event.

Then Erik commands Rogue to kiss Gambit and reveal the rest of his secrets.  Rogue doesn’t want to, but she is forced.  Gambit showed the Marauders the way to the Morlock tunnels, not realizing that they were going to kill all the Morlocks.  Once he figured out their goal, Gambit tried to stop them, but he was wounded by Sabretooth.  Injured, he managed to save one Morlock child, who later turns out to be Marrow. 

After kissing Gambit, Rogue absorbs his powers and is able to free herself and the other X-Men.  They beat on Erik the Red until he retreats, collapsing the hideout in the process.  Rogue grabs Gambit while the other X-Men escape through Psylocke’s teleportation.  Gambit thinks that Rogue has decided to forgive him, but instead she is disgusted by what she has learned.  She decides to leave him stranded in Antarctica because she can’t stand to be around him.

In an escape craft, the robot Ferris attends to Erik the Red.  Erik removes his disguise, revealing himself to be Magneto, the Master of Magnetism. 

How It Was: Finally, we come to it.  Gambit’s big secret revealed.  Was it worth the wait?  Well, that’s hard to say, but at least it’s over and done.  There are quite a few surprises in this book, such as the real Magneto, but the execution leaves a little to be desired.

The fact is that there are some wonky plot mechanics going on here.  Psylocke’s weird teleporting power ends up sending her, Maggott, and Archangel to the citadel for absolutely no reason other than plot convenience.  Yes he was looking for Magneto, but he hadn’t found him yet.  Psylocke’s interest in Maggott is completely forgotten after this issue, so it reads especially strange here.  Psylocke sticks out again when testifying against Gambit.  How could she forget all of this information until this issue, twenth-six issues from the original mind scan?  It’s just such a convoluted way of getting to the point, and there had to have been a simpler way to tell this story, although Steve Seagle did okay with what he inherited.

On top of Psylocke’s strange plot contrived moments, the rest of the X-Men serve no purpose here.  This story could’ve easily been Joseph, Rogue, and Gambit and probably been a lot better for it.  Also, Magneto’s purpose here never plays into any larger stories at all; later he just makes a throwaway comment about how he was trying to sew dissention among the X-Men.  At least Spat and Grovel make their last appearance (as far as I know).

This issue still has some moments.  I like Erik the Red’s grandiose entrance, and I chuckled every time he repeated for the group to be silent. Plus Magneto’s robot is named Ferris (Get it, ferrous.  Ha!). The flashback with Gambit trying to stop the Marauders is a nice little moment, especially since Gambit’s been so moody for the last year or so of issues.

The big moment of the issue, what will make or break it for the reader, is your reaction to Gambit being left behind in Antarctica.  I’m conflicted.  On the one hand it works so well thematically with Rogue doing everything to convince Remy she can forgive him and ultimately not being able to.  Yes it’s a little contradictory since Rogue was a villain before and ruined her fair share of lives, but it’s easy to see why Rogue is upset and why she would feel utterly betrayed, given the circumstances of their recent bit of intimacy.  But then there is the fact that she just leaves him alone, shirtless even, in the middle of Antarctica, where he would surely die.  That’s a really steep punishment, especially coming from an X-Man because they don’t even kill their enemies.  I tend to lean more toward the camp that enjoys the scene.  It’s melodrama, but it builds on the (very few) good parts that have been in previous issues, and it opens up some interesting story potential for Rogue.  Yes, it’s strange that she tries to kill him by stranding him, but that gets written away later, you’ll see.

Joe Mad turns in his last regular art duties, and unfortunately he was unable to finish the whole book.  Yes, it is a double page anniversary issue, but it’s still disappointing.  Paul Smith’s filler is perfectly fine, but it doesn’t match Madureira’s style whatsoever.  Plus, for a double-sized issue, not a lot happens until the very end.  There’s almost no action, and most of the exposition is recapping all the events up until now for potential new readers.  Yes this story is drawn out, and most of the threads are never picked up again, but I once again find myself enjoying the Gambit and Rogue emotional roller coaster.  It’s just too bad more didn’t come from the events of this issue. 

C+

X-Men #52

X-Men #52
Writing: Mark Waid
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Continuing from the cliffhanger last issue, Gambit is charging the front car of a runaway train with explosive energy while Bishop yells at him for being crazy. Gambit reveals that his plan is to have Bishop absorb all of the energy until he has enough to release and stop the train. Somehow this actually works, but it leaves both heroes weakened so that Mr. Sinister can easily knock them out.

In South Carolina, Rogue rents an apartment from a single mother; the woman’s son tries to touch her, and she panics. On TV a news report discusses the runaway train with possible mutants witnessed at the scene. The woman comments about how awful mutants are, and Rogue regretfully agrees with her.

At the train station, police are interviewing all of the formerly mutated humans. A shadowy figure in a trenchcoat and hat walks by, and all the cops refer to him as an important government figure named Bastion.

In Sinister’s underground lab, the X-Men are all elaborately restrained. Sinister explains that he was using the train to test the effectiveness of his new mutant virus which creates minions for his disposal. He is also excited because he finally has Bishop in his possession. You see, because Bishop comes from the future, Sinister has no genetic records of him at all. And since Sinister has collected samples of every other genetic mutant ever, that just won’t do.

Sinister has a machine that projects thoughts, so he’s going to use it to learn Bishop’s origins. Dark Beasts panics because he knows that this test will show that he’s not the real Beast, and reveal to Sinister all his secrets from the Age of Apocalypse. Sinister learns about Bishop’s time traveling, the X-traitor, and the Age of Apocalypse while Beast insists that Gambit free them. Beast also notices that Sinister takes an interest in Gambit’s health when Gambit pretends to be coming down with the virus.

As Sinister approaches him, Gambit releases a charged card and blows up the machine, thus freeing his friends and destroying all of Sinister’s samples. The X-Men defeat Sinister in about two pages, and he teleports away. As they walk away, Gambit tells the group that they are just outside of St. Louis. Dark Beast picks up on this and realizes that Gambit must have a connection to Sinister. Rather than tell the X-Men, he decides to keep this information to himself for future use.

How It Was: First off, I’m no physics expert, but I’m ninety percent sure that Gambit’s plan wouldn’t have a chance in hell of working, due to the fact that the locomotive’s engine is continuously running, so any attempt to introduce an equal opposing force would be negated once Bishop’s energy was depleted. Then again, it’s a comic book about people with genetic anomalies that give them super powers, so I guess I don’t have a lot of grounds to judge it on realism.

How much does it suck to be Dark Beast? Getting captured by the one person you’re trying to hide from on your first mission with the X-Men has to be frustrating. Anyways, Bishop gets something of a resolution to his months long beat of hallucinating about the Age of the Apocalypse. After having his experiences confirmed by Sinister, Bishop is finally able to come to terms with them, and they’re rarely ever mentioned again.  It’s not the most satisfying conclusion, but hey, at least it’s something.

The dialogue between Rogue and her racist landlord is some of the worst to ever appear in an X-Men comic. Not only is it an unflattering portrayal of people in South Carolina (“Don’t tell me I’ve done rented to a mutant lover?”), showing yet another human that hates mutants a lot doesn’t really add anything to the story.

There’s also some more cryptic hinting at Gambit’s relationship with Sinister, but most of this is for the benefit of the Dark Beast so he can figure it out on his own. He says that he plans on using this information to his advantage someday, but again he’s going to be disappearing in a couple of issues and the plot point will fade away with him. Sinister’s reaction to capturing Bishop is well-handled, and the fact that Bishop would be his missing link is a nice touch. In fact, the conflict is really well-constructed in that all three mutants have secrets that they don’t want Sinister to discover or share, so the plot is a little more engaging than your standard “captured by a mad scientist” plotline.

An event that should feel more significant is the destruction of Sinister’s life’s work, a collection of every mutant’s genetic samples, by Gambit. Of course, it would be easier to get excited about if it hadn’t already happened a year ago in X-Men #34, and afterwards Sinister just said that he had duplicates. And yeah, this time Sinister is around to agonize about the loss and lash out at the X-Men, but this only lasts for a page until he’s blasted by Bishop and teleports away. This is a pretty easy victory for the X-Men as far as Sinister goes; usually he puts up more of a fight.

While a nice aside, in the long run this two issue story just doesn’t feel that significant. Sure it resolves Bishop’s whining about the Age of Apocalypse, and it features the Dark Beast and Gambit coming into contact with Sinister, but the story just rushes to the end and neither of the villains do anything with the new information they’ve gathered. After all, Sinister had gained knowledge of the future while Dark Beast knew of the villain’s relationship with Gambit, so something could’ve come of this.

B-

X-Men #51

X-Men #51
Writing: Mark Waid
Art: Pascal Ferry

What Went Down: Professor X and Bishop are in the mansion’s war room attempting to fix Cerebro after it was destroyed way back in the Phalanx storyline. Cerebro detects a massive spike in New Jersey before shorting out again. Even though Xavier believes it might be a malfunction, Bishop, Gambit, and Beast are sent out to investigate.

The coordinates lead the X-Men to a commuter train. Upon entering, they find a number of mutant monsters. Throughout all this, Beast keeps making inappropriate jokes because in reality he’s the Dark Beast in disguise. Bishop explains that the monsters are actually mutated humans, and they witness one human turning into a monster, showing that the mutation is contagious.

At the house of Jean Grey’s parents, Cyclops tests Jean’s niece and nephew for telepathy by hiding a quarter. Jean is not very excited to see this because she wants the children to live normal lives. Jean’s parents turn the TV to the news where we see Graydon Creed officially announce his candidacy for President of the United States.

At the mansion, Xavier calls Mutant Underground member Louis St. Croix to discuss the recent turn of events. Xavier cryptically mentions that he may have to take drastic measures against Creed. On the train, our heroes fight the monsters for a while and then split up. Gambit and Bishop head off towards the engine to stop the train while Beast looks for a way to subdue the passengers. Gambit and Bishop find a really big monster waiting for them in the engine.

Incredibly, Dark Beast is able to create an anesthetic from random ingredients on the train; once unconscious, all the monsters become human again. Beast looks over his work, but Mr. Sinister ambushes him; ironically Dark Beast replaced the regular Beast in an attempt to hide from Mr. Sinister. Back at the front of the train, the controls are smashed, so the X-Men have no way to stop it. Gambit gets an idea and begins charging the front car with kinetic energy. Bishop yells at him for creating a speeding bomb.

How It Was: Gambit and Bishop continue their bromance as they team up yet again to stop a crazy train full of monsters. In case you forgot, the writers are trying to keep the X-traitor storyline on our minds, since it’s going to play a big role in the upcoming Onslaught crossover. Mark Waid does a solid job with characters, especially the Dark Beast, but the plot leaves a little something to desire. The entire “turning humans into mutants” angle feels a little too “mad scientist-y” even for Mr. Sinister, and the manner in which the monsters are defeated is too convenient. After all, why would a train have all the chemicals needed for an airborne anesthetic to be created; it’s not like the Beast has a lot of pockets to keep all of those ingredients in.

I’m glad to see that the Dark Beast doesn’t really fit in with the X-Men, and Waid does a great job of capturing his revulsion and paranoia. Still, since the identity theft only lasts another four issues, not a lot comes of this. And I can’t really understand the whole rationale behind it; why would McCoy think that infiltrating the X-Men would keep him safer from Sinister, rather than just staying in hiding? Of course, we discover how terrible his plan actually is when Sinister captures him during his very first mission with the X-Men.

Bishop and Gambit aren’t given a whole lot characterwise, but since they’re both the focus next issue it’s not a big deal. Ferry’s art works surprisingly well with the monsters; he draws them with a very horror comic aesthetic reminiscent of something you might’ve seen back in the days of EC. Graydon Creed’s announcement feels pretty significant, but as we’ll see after Onslaught, it doesn’t go on for too long, so don’t get too excited. It’s an inauspicious debut for Mark Waid, and it’s hard to get since he’s not staying onboard for too long.

C+

X-Men #45

X-Men #45
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: The issue starts off with Rogue chucking a giant boulder at Iceman. She’s mad because Bobby keeps asking her where they are going, but it is obvious that something is wrong since she is overreacting quite a bit. Rogue can’t explain what’s wrong with her; she saw something in Gambit’s mind that she can’t remember. Iceman calms her down, and they continue their drive.

Gambit arrives in Seattle in one of the X-Men’s jets. Inside a bar near the University of Washington, Rogue flirts with all the patrons and asks for free drinks. She’s about to touch someone’s face when Iceman stops her, causing her to lash out and break the bar. Rogue flies away in a huff, leaving the crowd to realize that Iceman is a mutant and form an angry mob. Gambit shows up and frightens off the crowd with some exploding cards.

In an apartment, Graydon Creed is watching a news report on the hostages from the Gene Nation storyline in Uncanny #325. A man named Clay is asking Creed to run for president and tosses him a campaign button for Creed ’96.

Rogue ends up in an abandoned theatre that is somehow significant to Gambit’s history. Gambit and Iceman show up right after, and Gambit goes down to talk to her. Rogue is relieved to see that Gambit is okay. Gambit knows what is bothering Rogue, but he doesn’t want to tell her his secret and hopes she can get over it. Rogue freaks out and brings part of the ceiling down. Gambit keeps trying to frame their kiss as yet another obstacle, but Rogue gets mad and flies away.

Iceman chases after her and tells her that they both have issues that they need to settle. Gambit charges a rope and throws it at Rogue so that she doesn’t get away. Rogue tries to get Gambit to tell her what happened at this theater, but he insists that it’s buried. Gambit says Rogue has to free herself, but she doesn’t know if she can go without touching him again; Gambit says they can touch each other on the inside (figuratively, you perverts!) . Rogue decides to leave and be by herself for a while.

Iceman consoles Gambit, saying that he tried his best. Gambit tells Bobby to leave him alone for a while. While walking in an alley, Gambit encounters Sinister. He tells Gambit that he cannot pretend to be a follower of Xavier and hints that at one time Gambit needed Sinister’s help. He also hints that soon Gambit will have to play the hand Sinister dealt him before disappearing.

How It Was: I like the idea of containing this particular story to one issue. Unfortunately this issue is double-sized, and there doesn’t appear to be enough story to fill all those pages. So we get an issue of Rogue overreacting…a lot. Seriously, she gets angry and breaks or attacks something at least four times in one issue. Insert joke about mutants and that time of the month. There’s an entire segue way in a bar that goes absolutely nowhere and serves only to create some action to fill up a couple of pages.

But honestly, there is a lot of emotional mileage to be had here. The kiss between Rogue and Gambit has created a lot of drama. There’s the secret that Gambit’s afraid of, the way this affects Rogue’s trust and sanity, and the ongoing problem that they can’t touch each other. And if this had been a twenty-two page comic, I feel like it might’ve worked. Yes, some of the dialogue is really schmaltzy, like when Gambit talks about being able to kiss Rogue’s tears, but I always really liked the line at the end where Rogue tells Gambit that he was exactly what she expected. The real problem is that this secret has been teased out for months and months in the Rogue and Iceman scenes, and the end of the story doesn’t tell us what Gambit did, only that it involved Sinister.

Of course, looking back at 1995, this was pretty significant information. Learning that Sinister and Gambit worked together was a shock, and it did lend credence to Bishop’s theory about Gambit being the traitor. It just never felt significant enough for me. Maybe if the X-Office had followed up on it right away; Gambit’s secret gets jerked around for years, and by the time it is revealed, most readers had pretty much figured out what the X-office was going to do with it.

It should be noted that this is Fabian Nicieza’s last issue of X-Men. He continued to work for Marvel for a number of years, sometimes on the satellite X-books, but also on a number of other Marvel projects. He returns to the X-Men in 2001 to write the very excellent X-Men Forever mini-series, so there is that to look forward to in the far, far off future. On the whole, I’d say that his run was pretty remarkable; thirty two issues is nothing to shrug off, on top of all of the one-shots and annuals. For the most part he ended on a strong note with the Age of Apocalypse as well as the very good Avalon story in X-Men. While his final issue isn’t his strongest work, it does feature some good dialogue and an honest attempt to deconstruct the relationship of two of the characters that made his run so good. It’s unfortunate that it had to be so long and drawn out.

C

X-Men '95 Annual

X-Men ’95 (Annual)
Writing: J.M. Dematteis, Ralph Macchio, Scott Lobdell, and Matt Idelson
Art: Terry Dodson, John Paul Leon, and Ramon Bernardo

What Went Down: Starting with 1995, all Marvel Comics annuals discard their old numbering systems and are solely distinguished by the year…for a while at least. It’s hard to say when exactly this one takes place; it’s sometime after X-Men Prime, but before X-Men #45, which is still a really large time frame.

The issue starts off in a convalescents’ home where an old woman disappears from her room. We cut to the Beast running through the woods and diving off a cliff into a river for fun. Jean Grey is at the bottom, and the teammates joke with each other and reflect on recent events. Beast has invited the original X-Men to a cabin to reconnect, and Jean empathizes with his need to immerse himself in the comfortable and familiar.

Back at the nursing home Nathaniel Essex, who is really Mr. Sinister, is visiting the old woman from earlier, Faye Livingstone. A nurse leads Essex into her room, but the only person in the room is Genesis. For those who don’t know, Genesis is Cable’s stepson that was abducted in the future by Apocalypse and brainwashed. Genesis kills the nurse, and tells Sinister that he has observed Sinister visiting this woman every year. Thinking that he has discovered Sinister’s weakness, Genesis has abducted Faye and used genetic engineering to temporarily de-age her. Also, Genesis has gained the leadership of the Dark Riders.

After Genesis and the Dark Riders teleport away, Sinister has a flashback to when he first met Faye. Posing as Nathaniel Essex, Sinister lived in a large mansion in Hollywood during the 1930s. Essex throws a party and Faye Livingstone, a radio comedienne of the time, gets to dance with the host. Faye finds Essex very attractive and ends up staying over. In the middle of the night, Faye finds Sinister in his lab with his normal white skin.

Back at the cabin, Beast eats popcorn with his feet, and Jean goes to bed. Beast stays up and contemplates his bachelor status. The Dark Riders teleport in and tell Beast that they are going to kidnap Jean Grey. A fight ensues, and Jean is captured, but she is able to leave a psychic trail for Beast to follow in the Blackbird.

Genesis, Sinister, and Faye are located at Sinister’s old lab in Hollywood. Jean is suspended above them in a power cage, but she breaks out after a page. Genesis hides behind Faye, and Sinister asks Jean to stay back.

The flashback continues with Sinister holding Faye in his mansion for weeks while he conducts experiments on her. Her DNA has the potential to have a powerful mutant offspring. After weeks of her being terrified and imprisoned, Sinister sets her free without a word.

Beast arrives at the mansion and is attacked by goblin creatures engineered by Sinister. The scene ends with Beast appearing to be overwhelmed, but later he shows up and is fine. Inside, Genesis wants Jean to mind-link Sinister and Faye to force Sinister to reveal his feelings. Jean refuses, and Beast shows up to rescue her. Jean tries to lift Faye out of there, but Sinister begs her to let it play out; Beast tells Jean to listen to him after seeing distress on Sinister’s face.

In the mind-link, Faye and Sinister dance. Faye tells Sinister that she knows he loved her and he couldn’t find a way to express it. Faye then turns old again and dies. Sinister claims that her final thoughts were delusions and he shows no emotion at all. Genesis admits he was wrong and teleports away. Sinister tells the X-Men to leave. Beast puts an arm on Sinister’s shoulder, showing that he empathizes with his pain.

After the X-Men leave, the mansion bursts into flames. Sinister stares off in the distance silently. Genesis talks with one of the Dark Riders about his next plan, which deals with Wolverine and occurs in Wolverine #99-101. The next day, Cyclops and Archangel show up at the cabin. Cyclops wants to clean up after the battle with the Dark Riders, but Jean tells him there is nothing wrong and they kiss.

What Else Went Down: In the back-up story, Captain Britain—aka Brian Braddock is at a post office while the postmaster searches for a letter from Brian’s sister Psylocke. Brian then reads Psylocke’s letter about her new relationship with Archangel.

With the letter serving as Psylocke’s narration, we get a scene of Warren and Betsy at a carnival and discussing their relationship. They get cotton candy from a vendor who has a crush on Warren. Then the couple talks about their relationship some more, and they go off to ride the Ferris Wheel. The ride jams, they talk about their relationship some more, and Archangel flies off carrying Psylocke. While flying, they talk some more and determine that they really care about each other. After reading the letter, Brian feels inspired and flies off, leaving his boat behind for some reason.

How It Was: This is a pretty big character piece for the Beast and Mr. Sinister; Jean’s around but she doesn’t get as much characterization to work with. Beast is presented with all of his personality and humor intact, and it’s nice to see him get the spotlight since over in the main titles he hasn’t had a lot to do other than work on the Legacy Virus.

The real surprise of the issue is the attempt to turn Sinister into a sympathetic character. It’s a decent attempt, but it’s hard to empathize with a guy that locks a woman in a room, experiments and degrades her for weeks, sets her free, and calls it love. It works if you look at it as exploring Sinister’s inability to express love and emotion, but Faye’s admission of love really makes her look weak and pathetic; sure it could be written off as Stockholm Syndrome, but Faye would have come off as a stronger character if she stood up to her abuser instead. And it’s really difficult to believe that the Beast would put his hand on Sinister’s shoulder as a sign of understanding, given all of the ways that Sinister has manipulated and threatened his friends over the years.

The other anomaly to this story is the presence of Genesis, Cable’s son. The reasoning behind his attack is pretty faulty, and the story seems to present Sinister as more powerful than him, so I can’t understand why Sinister doesn’t just kill him at the end. The end is silly with Genesis essentially apologizing for wasting everyone’s time and teleporting away. Plus Genesis brings the Dark Riders with him, one of the worst super villain groups ever; so bad in fact that they disappear midway through the story so that the Beast can fight some generic, but visually interesting monsters instead.

The art is really the star here. Leon’s dark, almost scratchy style works incredibly well for the gothic interiors and horror movie tone of the flashbacks, while Dodson’s smooth, clean style works fantastic with the scenes of Jean and Beast having fun and the flashy super hero battles.

If you couldn’t tell from my synopsis of the back-up story, it’s terrible…truly terrible…possibly the worst thing that Scott Lobdell has ever written. It’s good that Lobdell is keeping up with his vow to play the couple completely straight and realistic, but this is a little too realistic in that it is as boring as listening to two people talk about their relationship in real life. Plus there are so many pointless moments that serve to slow that story down even more, like the cotton candy girl with a crush on Warren or the postmaster who loses Brian’s letter. Worst of all is probably the portrayal of Brian Braddock as an apathetic loser, who basically has lost the will to live until he reads a letter about the boring, mundane happenings of his sister and her relationship. It’s hard to see what he finds so invigorating about this story whatsoever. So, this leaves us with an average main story and a terribly below average back-up all in one.

C+

X-Men #34

X-Men #34
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: In Nebraska, the Blue Team visits the orphanage where Scott Summers grew up. This same orphanage also turns out to be one of Mr. Sinister’s safehouses for his lab. Psylocke and Gambit sneak in while Rogue and Beast wait in the plane. The X-Men are investigating Sinister’s research into the Legacy Virus to make sure everything is kosher.

Using intelligence from Sabretooth, Gambit and Psylocke find the hidden door to the lab. Inside they discover the Marauder Riptide, which surprises everyone since he is supposed to be dead. After knocking him out, Gambit observes weird rashes on Riptide’s skin. Rogue bursts in and demonstrates worry for Gambit’s safety. After finding another hidden door, the X-Men discover Threnody strapped to a number of machines. It turns out that Sinister is out fighting X-Factor at the moment. She lets the blue team know that their presence has triggered security drones, but the Beast is able to disable them through a computer.

Everyone is relieved to see that Threnody is okay, given that she has been in the care of one of their most deadly enemies. Threnody is thankful because Sinister has helped her to control her powers and learn new things. The X-Men try to convince her that Sinister will want more from her, and that she is really a prisoner here. Upon learning that they fought Riptide, Threnody reveals that he was a clone and that his clone partner was probably also released.

The team is then attacked by an unfinished clone of Sabretooth. Rogue takes the opportunity to take her aggressions for the real Creed out on the clone and defeats it in one hit. After seeing this Threnody decides to destroy Sinister’s DNA bank so no one else would be hurt by it. Beast tries to convince her to come with them, but Threnody feels that she still needs to help stop Sinister from the inside.

How It Was: First I just want to say that clones are stupid and stories with clones as either the hero or villain are cheap and stupid. Really they only exist in this story to create some action sequences, and as a retcon for all of the various stories that contained accidental character appearances from Marauders after their deaths.

It is really nice to see the X-Men actually follow up on a storyline instead of just responding to emergencies, but I can’t say that I’m particularly excited to see Threnody again. She’s not really the most exciting supporting character ever, and she turns on Sinister rather quickly. First she is convinced he has mutantkind’s best interest at heart, then after seeing his clones she thinks that all of his painstaking work must be wiped out. Of course it doesn’t really matter because later stories reveal that Sinister just had another set of DNA samples lying around.  Also it doesn’t make sense as to why she would stick around after trashing Sinister’s lab; isn’t there a possibility that he might be mad?

Other than that, this issue is okay. There is also a needless scene where Beast foils Sinister’s security system with a computer that feels tacked on to push the story forward. After this issue, we’re not going to see a lot about the Legacy Virus, so this marks one of the last issues to focus solely on it for a really long time.

C

X-Men #27

X-Men #27
Writing: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Richard Bennett

What Went Down: A homeless mutant nicknamed Threnody is crying out in pain on a street in Los Angeles. Two cops find her and offer to help her, but Threnody loses control of her mutant power and accidentally incinerates them.

At Los Angeles General Hospital, Rogue, Iceman, and Beast are visiting onetime X-Factor villain Infectia, who has contracted the Legacy Virus. Rogue throws another tantrum about how unfair life is, and the group is interrupted by Dr. Nathan Milbury. The good doctor seems very amiable towards the mutants and takes a sample of Infectia’s blood. Milbury tells the X-Men that she was initially looking for Gordon Lefferts, a doctor looking for the cure and Mr. Sinister’s assistant who died of the Legacy Virus. After Milbury leaves, a nurse enters and lets them know that there is no Dr. Nathan Milbury working for the hospital.

Outside the mansion, Revanche is taking a jog when Psylocke decides it would be a good idea to jump out of a tree and attack her. The two women fight for a couple of panels, and Psylocke reveals that she wanted to see how Revanche was. Revanche realizes that Betsy is just testing her to see how much the Legacy Virus has affected her fighting abilities.

Beast modifies a device to find Lefferts’ old lab and the three X-Men track it down. Inside are a number of homeless people residing and looting; Threnody is also among them, but she runs off after Rogue tries to talk to her. Beast is fascinated by the advanced technology he finds and busies himself with it while Rogue searches for Threnody, who ends up running right into Mr. Sinister. Rogue attacks Sinister, but Threnody’s power acts up again, causing another huge explosion. It attracts the rest of the X-Men

The X-Men fight Sinister for a bit, but then he explains that he wants Threnody to aid in his research for a cure to the Legacy Virus. Her power is to absorb pain from anyone afflicted with the virus in question. Sinister wants to use her to find other sufferers of the disease; he also claims that Xavier would never allow the mutant to be used in that manner because it causes her pain, and that failure to sacrifice might come at the expense of the cure. Rogue asks why Threnody’s powers flared up when no one with the virus was around; Sinister claims he doesn’t know, but it is possible that he himself is infected since he was present at the canister’s opening. The X-Men leave Threnody with Sinister and go back to Infectia. Infectia is on her deathbed, and Beast offers to take her out of her room to see the sunrise, even though it risks his own health. She dies in his arms.

How It Was: The Legacy Virus continues to rack up casualties and make the virus seem more important. Unfortunately, this storyline is about to get pushed to the side for a bunch of issues to focus on Cyclops and Jean Grey’s wedding, followed by the Phalanx, Generation X, and the Age of Apocalypse; afterwards, the writers keep trying to get back to it, but the story never gets the same momentum going and drags on for years to come. Still, this issue does a good job of conveying the frustration and helplessness of characters that haven’t yet gotten to express their feelings about the virus. And Infectia, easily a C-list villain, gets a really great, emotional death scene.

Threnody is a neat idea for a character, but she doesn’t really work for me here. Maybe it’s because we never learn a great deal about her personality or background, or perhaps it is the fact that she is supposed to be homeless, but she looks and dresses like she is going out clubbing later.  Either way I’m just not a fan. Nevertheless, it is great to see Mr. Sinister back and there is once again great tension built by the ambiguous genuineness of the villain and the conflict over whether one person’s suffering is worth saving thousands or millions. Then again, I’m not sure about the X-Men’s decision to leave the girl with the villain because they are not willing to torture her themselves.

This isn’t the last issue to deal with the Legacy Virus, but it is the last one to feel like it was going anywhere. While the concept is revisited time and time again in the 90s, and many different characters get infected, it just never feels as central to the story as it did here. Also, we never learn if Sinister is infected or not, but many people consider it to be true.

B

X-Men #22

X-Men #22
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Andy Kubert

What Went Down: Previously in X-Men: when we last left our heroes they were about to engage in combat with the Silver Samurai. In this issue, they do indeed fight the Silver Samurai…for about five pages before beating him. Also, Beast is better now after being cut across the back with a katana blade charged with energy. During the fight, the Samurai stabs the picture of Kwannon, and afterwards Gambit discovers that the picture is actually hiding Nyorin’s diary.

In Tokyo, Shinobi Shaw meets with Matsuo, Nyorin, and the apparent leader of the Japanese underworld Lord Tatsuo. Tatsuo knocks Shinobi on his bottom for being arrogant and overconfident.

Across the pond in Alaska, Cyclops has just finished telling his grandparents about the death of Madelyne Pryor, and how he was forced to send his son Nathan to the future to save him. The grandparents are appropriately dismayed and confused. Scott is in the middle of telling them about Cable when they are interrupted by the Summers’ neighbor Mike Milbury asking to borrow a chainsaw. Super X-Men fans will note that Milbury is an alias often used by X-villain Mr. Sinister; other x-fans will just note the depiction with the red diamond on Mike’s forehead.

Even though she claims to be the original Betsy Braddock, Revanche is the only one capable of reading the Japanese diary of Nyorin. Rather than read the diary out loud, she decides to stab Psylocke with her psychic sword, allowing her to learn the story in the scroll. This version states that Kwannon was supposed to be on a mission when she discovered Betsy Braddock’s unconscious body. When she touched the body, Kwannon and Betsy’s minds merged for a bit. Kwannon than ran off to Matsuo while Betsy was found by Nyorin and aided so that she could bring back the woman he loves, Kwannon. Revanche is still sticking to the story that Psylocke is an impersonator.

The Gamemaster appears to Shinobi and Matsuo to basically explain that he is letting Matsuo kill Psylocke because he feels like it. The two Psylockes prepare to fight each other again, but Lord Nyorin and Silver Samurai interrupt them. Nyorin claims that both women are who they claim to be. Back in Alaska, Mr. Sinister confronts Cyclops outside in an ominous fashion.

How It Was: What a long story this turned out to be. Everything is basically the same as last issue. The two Betsys are threatening to beat each other up, Gambit and Beast somewhat humorously interject, and Cyclops is sad while with his grandparents. The fight between Silver Samurai and the X-Men is a nice distraction for a couple of pages, but ultimately just serves as a distraction to string out the plot. There is no real tension since he is outnumbered and dispatched fairly quickly.

But the major flaw with this story is Nyorin’s diary. First of all it reveals a brief, boring story with no twists that Nyorin couldn’t possibly know anyway; second, in about ten issues this story gets retconned and the diary is written off as a red herring left by Nyorin to confuse the girls. Add to that some meaningless scenes with Shinobi Shaw and the criminals of Tokyo, and you get one dull issue. At least the introduction of Sinister promises something potentially interesting, which it delivers.

Also, what really bothers me is all the characters getting summarily defeated, then showing up later in the same scene perfectly healthy. This happens to both Silver Samurai and Beast, who should both be out of commission for the rest of the story if Nicieza didn’t just have them waking up when they’re needed. Granted Nicieza had a difficult mandate for this story, but that doesn’t excuse this.

D+

X-Force #16

X-Force #16
Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Art: Greg Capullo

What Went Down: Part 4 of the X-Cutioner's Song.  X-Force, X-Factor, and the X-Men’s Blue Team start off by having a nice calm conversation about their differences…that lasts for an entire page. Then the big fight begins. X-Force gets the upper hand because they initialize the attack. Siryn also reveals that she had a relationship with Multiple Man (probably when they were both on Muir Island), although he doesn’t seem to remember. Eventually Wolverine stabs Shatterstar, and the rest of X-Force retreats.

Meanwhile the Gold Team, the Beast, and Quicksilver make their way to what they believe to be Apocalypse’s base by tracking Caliban through Cerebro. They are ambushed by two of the Horsemen, Famine and Caliban. Poor Beast gets hit by Famine and turns very skinny. The X-Men dispatch the Horsemen and discover a hologram of Mr. Sinister; the hologram tells them that he did kidnap Cyclops and Jean Grey and that Apocalypse is also involved in the plot.

At the mansion, Bishop blows a hole in Sinister’s head Terminator 2 style. Sinister overpowers him and Jubilee, then drops a piece of paper in front of Val with the identity of someone on it.

Cable is gathering a laughably large arsenal in his base so he can go after the person who assumed his identity.

In an unknown location, Cyclops and Jean are being dragged by the mutant with four arms named Forearm. The two X-Men wonder how they got in their uniforms, and then the main villain of the crossover reveals himself—it’s the Cable villain Stryfe.

Back in Texas, X-Force is running for their lives when Wolverine catches up with them. He delays them long enough for the rest of the X-Men to catch up. Then X-Force surrenders. The issue ends with Havok asking an important question, “What do we do now?”

How It Was: If you like X-Force fighting other mutant teams, than this is the crossover for you. The majority of the issue is given to a fight where X-Force is severely outnumbered. I guess from the perspective of the regular X-Force reader, this is a really interesting story because it’s the team you like against the odds. But if you’re normally just an X-Men reader like I am, than it’s just the X-Men overpowering a weaker force.

The other two plots keep the story moving. The problem is that the X-Men don’t do anything to further the plot; Sinister just tells them what they need to know for the story to continue. The Gold Team finds a hologram telling them what to do next, and then Sinister leaves a clue right in the mansion for everyone to see.

Also, besides the Bishop fight, we’ve already seen both of these fights before; there’s already been an X-Force fight and a Horsemen fight in this story, so that’s kind of disappointing. And the reveal of Stryfe is kind of ruined if you read X-Men #13 prior to this, although I’m not sure how much X-Force readers already knew about Stryfe.

This series is probably my only encounter with Greg Capullo’s art. The characters are nice and vibrant, but some of the expressions are pretty odd looking, such as Wolverine when he’s stabbing Shatterstar. Still, it’s a fast paced issue and once again the creative team does a good job of differentiating the characters and making sure they each have their moment to shine.

B